Ray will be providing updates to the club on the activities of the Stark Development Board and how Covid has affected their efforts, as well as what it means to their organization, and Stark County residents and businesses going forward.

Ray Hexamer is President of the Stark Development Board. He is the former CEO of First Communications in Akron and former executive director of the Massillon Development Foundation. Before that he served as president of Beaverkettle Broadcasting, the former owner of WHBC-AM & FM.

Ray earned a B.A. in business administration from the University of Akron. He has been active in the community, serving on various community boards and professional associations. Ray is a former member and Past President of the Rotary Club of Canton. He and his wife Shannon are lifelong residents of Stark County. They have four adult children and three grandchildren.

Our next virtual meeting is scheduled for this Friday, June 5th. The meeting room will be available at 11:30am for general conversations between Rotarians. The formal meeting will kick-off at 12 noon and include our featured speaker, Ray Hexamer. We should conclude about 12:45pm.

A Zoom invitation has been sent to your email with the log in information to this meeting, and it is also shown below in this article.

Should you have any questions on this meeting, don't hesitate to contact the office.

On Friday, June 26th, the Rotary Club of Canton will host a fellowship scramble-format golf outing at The Sanctuary Golf Club located at 2017 Applegrove Street N.W., North Canton.

This year's golf outing will be a scaled down event of 10 foursomes with scheduled tee times. The golf outing will begin at 8:30 am, with the first foursome starting at hole #1 and a second foursome starting at hole #10. The remaining foursomes will continue to tee off every ten minutes. The golf fee for this year's outing is $60.00 per golfer or $240.00 per foursome. This fee will include a golf cart, light snack at the turn and a box lunch at the pavilion after the outing.

Due to the current social distancing requirements, there will be some changes in the registration for this year's event. The following changes are as follows:

ONLY the Team Captain will be able to register online and pay for their foursome;

No cash/check payments will be accepted. The Team Captain will be required to pay by credit card at the time of registering;

Tee times are scheduled ten minutes apart and once a tee time has been selected, that time slot will be blocked out.

Check-in for this event will be conducted at the Club House. Golfers are asked to arrive 15 minutes before their tee time and obey the social distancing guidelines

Box lunches will be provided at the pavilion after the outing. Prizes will be awarded to the first place team, second place team and the last place team. Golfers will also have a chance to enter into a 50/50 raffle.

Registration will be posted early next week so get your foursomes ready!

Happy Summertime, Rotarians. This year, the advent of warmer, sunnier skies is even more welcome than in the past. We finally get a break from our confinement. And most outdoor activities (think: golf, hiking, kayak, fishing) can be enjoyed while respecting social distancing guidelines. So get out and enjoy… but stay connected to your Rotary friends (from a distance) by attending our virtual meetings.

Our June Meeting Schedule. Because Ohio continues to restrict the size of social gatherings to below 25 people, our meetings at the Krassas Center remain cancelled until (at least) July. But we are planning two, full-member ZOOM meetings for June 5th and June 19th. This Friday’s keynote speaker will be Ray Hexamer, President of the Stark Development Board, who will give us some insights into our community and provide some bright spots looking forward.

Please look below for important information on how to attend our Zoom meetings. We look forward to our largest turnout of our virtual meetings this week. Come on out and help us keep our club interactive and strong.

Also plan on attending our Golf Fun and Fellowship event scheduled for June 26th. This open-air get-together might be your first chance to see some Rotarians face-to-face in a long-time. Our golf committee is working on the details of how this event can be safely structured. Look below for more information.

We are hopeful that gathering restrictions will continue to loosen and that July meetings at Krassas may occur. We’ll keep you posted as we learn more.

In order to make contributing to the club easy during this time of social separation, we have recently added a “Make a Donation” link to our club website at www.cantonrotary.org. By clicking this link, you will be able to quickly and easily make a contribution to the club, via credit or debit card.

Integrated with our Clubrunner system, this is a safe and secure link. Please consider a donation today!

Travel is probably the last thing on your mind right now, but it’s not too early to start thinking about the Rotary International Convention in Taipei! If you have never been to an international convention, you should consider going!

Early Bird Registration for the convention will open on June 20th at 2:00pm EST, and the promotional rate will be offered worldwide through 11:59pm on June 26th, concurrent with the Virtual Convention dates. The early bird rate is $315 for Rotary club members and guests 31 and over; $100 for club members and guests 18-30, $10 for guests 5-18. Hotels are already accepting reservations!

The ClubRunner Mobile App is your key to connect to your club and district on the go!

Completely free to download and use, this app will let you access the key info you need while you're on the go. Password protected just like your website, the ClubRunner Mobile app allows you to to view your member directory, contact your members and executives, read the latest articles posted to your website, learn more about your upcoming events and speakers, view your meeting details and track your attendance statistics, right from your smartphone or tablet!